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Since I had such a hard time finding a clear answer, I thought I'd post instructions on how to set the elevation on a stationary Prime Focus Dish. Unlike the majority of people here, I was trying to set up a stationary dish, and kept getting confused when many of the posts I found kept mentioning Latitude, Southern Most Bird, True South, Declanation, and Total Elevation. If your setting up a stationary dish, FORGET ALL THAT! Assuming you've completed the preliminary steps (i.e. Plumb/Level Mount, unobstructed view of satellite) Do the following;
STEP ONE:
Go Here: Satellite Look Angles Satellite Heading Calculator Azimuth Elevation Skew Tilt LNBF Latitude and Longitude values And type in your information and desired satellite. Write down the DISH SETUP DATA, and head to your stationary dish.
STEP TWO:
Place your inclinometer (zero facing up) on a surface that is parallel with the face of your dish (Rear Support Bracket/Plate, Edge of Dish, Center Face of Dish, Scalar Surface).
STEP THREE:
Elevate dish until inclinometer reading matches that of DISH SETUP DATA for Elevation. THATS IT! You may still have to adjust a little to fine tune your signal, but this will get you in the ballpark.
PICTURE ONE: MY RESULTS FOR SATEMEX 5 ASKED FOR 49° degrees.
PICTURE 2: USING THE FLAT PART OF THE SCALAR, MY INCLINOMETER CONFIRMED MY 49° ELEVATION.
STEP ONE:
Go Here: Satellite Look Angles Satellite Heading Calculator Azimuth Elevation Skew Tilt LNBF Latitude and Longitude values And type in your information and desired satellite. Write down the DISH SETUP DATA, and head to your stationary dish.
STEP TWO:
Place your inclinometer (zero facing up) on a surface that is parallel with the face of your dish (Rear Support Bracket/Plate, Edge of Dish, Center Face of Dish, Scalar Surface).
STEP THREE:
Elevate dish until inclinometer reading matches that of DISH SETUP DATA for Elevation. THATS IT! You may still have to adjust a little to fine tune your signal, but this will get you in the ballpark.
PICTURE ONE: MY RESULTS FOR SATEMEX 5 ASKED FOR 49° degrees.
PICTURE 2: USING THE FLAT PART OF THE SCALAR, MY INCLINOMETER CONFIRMED MY 49° ELEVATION.
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Originally Posted by truckracer
you are doing it right but since thats a polar mount, if you try to turn the dish with the mount you are losing elevation either direction of your zenith (highest position). you will have to make sure your elevation is constantly 49 degrees (if thats correct foryour location). You azimuth heading will have to be very close then try to maintain your elevation.
It may actually be easier to use an actuator, set up the polar mount to be moveable and then just use a car battery or something to position the dish since you won't be moving it much.
just a thought to save you some money and trouble.
Not necessarily. If you loosen the actual mount on the pole, you can set your azimuth without affecting elevation. Im my case, this is what I'm doing:up!
I think you missed his point. If you align the polar mount, then all you have to do is run the actuator to go from sat to sat. If you loosen the mount on the pole, it becomes a mess, because you have to adjust both the azimuth and elevation differently for each sat. You may be able go go back and forth between 2 or 3 sats without changing the elevation, but that's about it.
What I did, which is similar to truckracer's battery idea, was to take the motor off an actuator, and make a drive piece that would replace the drive piece from the actuator, and put that in a battery powered hand drill. When I wanted to go from sat to sat, I just took my meter and hand drill out to the dish, and would screw it east or screw it west. Worked pretty well until I broke the fitting on the actuator ( the actuator was pretty well frozen up from not being used in years, and I tried to force it).
I've seen posts about using a hand cranked actuator too.
Years ago, I did what truckracer suggested for several months. I used a car battery charger, not the battery. A cheap battery charger will usually put out a voltage that might be in the 18-20 V range. That was back in the analog days, and it was pretty easy to see and recognize the sats as they go by. In today's digital age, it isn't quite as easy to find the sats, but it can be done.
Hmmm
I crossed through about 5 sats to try and pickup another and my elevation didn't change from one point to the other. Could it be that maybe I don't have a polar mount? I dont know it you can tell from the picture, but my my mount has 2 open straps that wrap around the pole and squeeze the pole when the straps are tightened. It has an actuator on it, but I removed all hardware associated with it along with the actuator itself. What do you think?I see what your saying though based on other mounts that Ive seen that have screws that lock the mount againts the pole.
Hmmm
I see what your saying though based on other mounts that Ive seen that have screws that lock the mount againts the pole.
On re-reading the above, I'm not completely sure I understand what you OR truckracer were saying.
The thing is that each sat will have a different elevation, and if you use your mount as an Az/El, then you have to adjust both Azimuth and Elevation to go from one sat to another.
I *THOUGHT* that truckracer was trying to say that since you actually had a polar mount, that it would be easier for you to go from sat to sat, since it only involves one adjustment, ie rotating around the polar axis. However on re-reading, it almost sounds like he's saying the opposite, talking about keeping a constant 49 deg. I'm not sure.
But whatever, what you're doing seems appropriate for using the mount as an Az/El. But as you move from sat to sat, your elevation is staying constant, and each sat has a different elevation, so you'll have to adjust both elevation and azimuth, and actually you'd have to also adjust the polarity skew as well. If you would set up the mount as a polar mount, then you wouldn't have to rotate the whole mount on the pole. All you'd have to do is to rotate around the polar axis.
On the other hand, if, as you mention elsewhere, you can get the azimuth fairly accurately, some people find it easier to find sats with an Az/El arangement, so whatever is easier for you.
BTW, your picture is a good illustration of declination, ie the difference between the polar axis inclination and the actual elevation of the dish itself. However it sure looks like the declination is set at a very high angle. Looks like 10-11 deg, which is too high, but that might be an optical illusion. But if you ever try aligning it as a polar mount, be sure to check out the declination. It's not obvious {to me} how it's adjusted on that mount.
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View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IxhDzSdSxZo
Direct YouTube Link - New LIGHT UP Apple Logo!
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYMNztkdF6I
Direct YouTube Link - Tech News Weekly 462
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TWIT Live Feed
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Direct YouTube Link - Tech News Weekly 462
TWIT's Website
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Cutting Edge
The TPN Map Excel Presents all DIRECTV Channels:
Understanding the TPN Map
Making Sense of the TPN Map Display Conventions
National (50-States or wide/NAT+PR beams)
Local (Local-Into-Local or narrow/Spot beams)
Local (Local-Into-Local or narrow/Spot beams)
Additional tabs provide:
OTA the (Over-The-Air) Database
VOD (Video On_Demand) Records
Offline Records
Engr Records
Net Decoder a graphic presentation of all satellites and transponders
VOD (Video On_Demand) Records
Offline Records
Engr Records
Net Decoder a graphic presentation of all satellites and transponders
Domestic Satellites
@99W...... D11, D14
@101W.... D16
@103W.... D12, D15
@110W.... D5
@119W.... D8
@99W...... D11, D14
@101W.... D16
@103W.... D12, D15
@110W.... D5
@119W.... D8
Understanding the TPN Map
Making Sense of the TPN Map Display Conventions
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Apparently I'm not a big enough nerd
since I did not read every Marvel Comic Book ever published. If I had, I might be comparing the comics' version of events compared to what's transpiring in "Visionquest". So, I am enjoying the series a lot, not weighed down by previous expectations, knowing only the Avengers MCU movies and the "Wandavision" / "Agatha All Along" TV series.
I found the Mr Know-it-All channel from his discussion about "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and he's been gleefully picking these episodes apart, referencing the Marvel comics from the 1939 on. Turns out A.I. has been around since before World War II, at least in the comics. (Robots before that, yes, yes.) This show is going back into the archives.
since I did not read every Marvel Comic Book ever published. If I had, I might be comparing the comics' version of events compared to what's transpiring in "Visionquest". So, I am enjoying the series a lot, not weighed down by previous expectations, knowing only the Avengers MCU movies and the "Wandavision" / "Agatha All Along" TV series.I found the Mr Know-it-All channel from his discussion about "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and he's been gleefully picking these episodes apart, referencing the Marvel comics from the 1939 on. Turns out A.I. has been around since before World War II, at least in the comics. (Robots before that, yes, yes.) This show is going back into the archives.
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Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
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Linus Tech Tips
Time for another AWESOME video from Linus Tech Tips!
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Direct YouTube Link - "Tesla Hater" Finally Tries Full Self Driving
Linus on Facebook
The LTT Store
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Lifetime Supporter
Looks like dish is Bankrupt. Filling tomorrow Tuesday June 30th
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Can't remember where or who I saw predict this.
It wouldn't surprise me to see Elon soon own all of DISH / Echostar in the future.
SpaceX boldly goes into 'huge' 5G network rollout with Qualcomm
After trying satellites and small cells, Elon Musk's SpaceX is to build a terrestrial mobile network across tens of thousands of sites with Qualcomm.
www.lightreading.com
M
Is Dish like Iran in one way...they both will totally collapse by end of week
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Booredatwork.com
Time for another AWESOME video from BoredAtWork!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgFbRDSD59w
Direct YouTube Link - MacBook Pro PROLED XDR vs ASUS ProArt P16 (2026)
Booredatwork.com Website
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgFbRDSD59w
Direct YouTube Link - MacBook Pro PROLED XDR vs ASUS ProArt P16 (2026)
Booredatwork.com Website
Booredatwork on Facebook
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I have Dish with Hopper3. I choose to get local channels OTA and had a "guide list" established at my previous home. Having moved a few miles away, I wanted to update the list by appending a couple new stations via a rescan. As many would know, some stations come in with the UHF/VHF antenna aimed in one direction, while others come in better with a different direction.
Unfortunately, when a scan is done (bringing in 25-30 stations for that particular antenna aim), the dialog screen does not present the established guide list; it presents an empty field to the right that the scanned stations may be selected one by one and added to the empty guide. But because of antenna aim, some stations originally saved are missing, and would have to be retrieved with a different antenna aim. But as I explain, if a 2nd scan is done with a different antenna aim, the stations saved from the first scan are lost.
It troubles me that Dish didn't develop software that would allow a user to simply append only 1 or 2 channels to the established list.
Any thought on this? Has anyone experienced this or heard of this from others?
Unfortunately, when a scan is done (bringing in 25-30 stations for that particular antenna aim), the dialog screen does not present the established guide list; it presents an empty field to the right that the scanned stations may be selected one by one and added to the empty guide. But because of antenna aim, some stations originally saved are missing, and would have to be retrieved with a different antenna aim. But as I explain, if a 2nd scan is done with a different antenna aim, the stations saved from the first scan are lost.
It troubles me that Dish didn't develop software that would allow a user to simply append only 1 or 2 channels to the established list.
Any thought on this? Has anyone experienced this or heard of this from others?
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